arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Sam Payne.
We prove that the number of curves of a fixed genus g with n marked points over finite fields is a polynomial function of the cardinality of the field if and only if g = 0 or 3g + 2n is less than or equal to 24. This confirms a conjecture of Canning, Larson, and the authors.
We survey recent progress on the cohomology of moduli spaces of stable curves through the lens of the Hodge and Tate conjectures, especially their generalized coniveau forms, which relate Hodge structures and l-adic Galois representations on cohomology to algebraic cycles. We explain how the inductive structure of the boundary stratification verifies these conjectures in a surprisingly wide range of cases, describe the guiding inspiration from arithmetic, and discuss open problems and directions for future research.
We study the universal PGL_n character variety over M_g whose fiber over a point [C] is the space of PGL_n-local systems on the curve C. We use nonabelian Hodge theory and properties of Saito's mixed Hodge modules to show that the Leray-Serre spectral sequence for the projection to M_g degenerates at E_2. As an application, we prove that the rational cohomology of these varieties stabilizes as g goes to infinity and compute the stable limit. We also deduce similar results for the universal G-character variety over M_{g,1} whose fiber over a punctured curve is the variety of G-local systems with fixed central monodromy around the puncture, for G = GL_n or SL_n. The paper concludes with a computation of the ring structure on the stable cohomology and with an appendix by Anne Larsen and Mirko Mauri proving related results for the intersection cohomology of singular universal character varieties.
For fixed genus g and varying finite marking set A, the gluing and forgetful maps give the spaces of holomorphic forms on the moduli space of stable A-marked curves of genus g has the structure of an FA-module, i.e., a functor from the category of finite sets to vector spaces. We prove that the resulting FA-modules of holomorphic k-forms are simple, for k less than or equal to 18, whenever they are nonzero. Conditional upon the conjectured vanishing of holomorphic 19-forms and 20-forms in genus 3, for 15 and 16 marked points, respectively, this extends to k less than or equal to 20.
We study a notion of tropical linear series on metric graphs that combines two essential properties of tropicalizations of linear series on algebraic curves: the Baker-Norine rank and the independence rank. Our main results relate the local and global geometry of these tropical linear series to the combinatorial geometry of matroids and valuated matroids, respectively. As an application, we characterize exactly when the tropicalization of the canonical linear series on a single curve is equal to the locus of realizable tropical canonical divisors determined by M\"oller, Ulirsch, and Werner. We also illustrate our results with a wealth of examples; in particular, we show that the Bergman fan of every matroid appears as the local fan of a tropical linear series on a metric graph. The paper concludes with a list of ten open questions for future investigation.
We study the appearances of $\mathsf{LS}_{12}$ and $\mathsf{S}_{16}$ in the weight-graded compactly supported cohomology of moduli spaces of curves. As applications, we prove new nonvanishing results for the middle cohomology groups of $\mathcal{M}_9$ and $\mathcal{M}_{11}$ and give evidence to support the conjecture that the dimension fo $H^{2g + k}_c(\mathcal{M}_g)$ grows at least exponentially with $g$ for almost all $k$.
We prove that the number of curves of a fixed genus g over finite fields is a polynomial function of the size of the field if and only if g is at most 8. Furthermore, we determine for each positive genus g the smallest n such that the moduli space of curves of genus g with n marked points does not have polynomial point count. A key ingredient in the proofs, which is also a new result of independent interest, is the computation of the thirteenth cohomology group of the moduli spaces of stable curves of genus g with n marked points, for all g and n.
We describe a bigraded cocommutative Hopf algebra structure on the weight zero compactly supported rational cohomology of the moduli space of principally polarized abelian varieties. By relating the primitives for the coproduct to graph cohomology, we deduce that $\dim H^{2g+k}_c(\mathcal{A}_g)$ grows at least exponentially with $g$ for $k = 0$ and for all but finitely many positive integers $k$. Our proof relies on a new result of independent interest; we use a filtered variant of the Waldhausen construction to show that Quillen's spectral sequence abutting to the cohomology of $BK(\mathbb{Z})$ is a spectral sequence of Hopf algebras. From the same construction, we also deduce that $\dim H^{\binom{n}{2} - n - k}(\mathrm{SL}_n(\mathbb{Z}))$ grows at least exponentially with $n$, for $k = -1$ and for all but finitely many non-negative integers $k$.
We study collections of subrings of $H^*(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n})$ that are closed under the tautological operations that map cohomology classes on moduli spaces of smaller dimension to those on moduli spaces of larger dimension and contain the tautological subrings. Such extensions of tautological rings are well-suited for inductive arguments and flexible enough for a wide range of applications. In particular, we confirm predictions of Chenevier and Lannes for the $\ell$-adic Galois representations and Hodge structures that appear in $H^k(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n})$ for $k = 13$, $14$, and $15$. We also show that $H^4(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n})$ is generated by tautological classes for all $g$ and $n$, confirming a prediction of Arbarello and Cornalba from the 1990s. In order to establish the final bases cases needed for the inductive proofs of our main results, we use Mukai's construction of canonically embedded pentagonal curves of genus 7 as linear sections of an orthogonal Grassmannian and a decomposition of the diagonal to show that the pure weight cohomology of $\mathcal{M}_{7,n}$ is generated by algebraic cycle classes, for $n \leq 3$.
We introduce adic tropicalizations for subschemes of toric varieties as limits of Gubler models associated to polyhedral covers of the ordinary tropicalization. Our main result shows that Huber's adic analytification of a subscheme of a toric variety is naturally isomorphic to the inverse limit of its adic tropicalizations, in the category of locally topologically ringed spaces. The key new technical idea underlying this theorem is cofinality of Gubler models, which we prove for projective schemes and also for more general compact analytic domains in closed subschemes of toric varieties. In addition, we introduce a G-topology and structure sheaf on ordinary tropicalizations, and show that Berkovich analytifications are limits of ordinary tropicalizations in the category of topologically ringed topoi.
We compare two partitions of real bitangents to smooth plane quartics into sets of 4: one coming from the closures of connected components of the avoidance locus and another coming from tropical geometry. When both are defined, we use the Tarski principle for real closed fields in combination with the topology of real plane quartics and the tropical geometry of bitangents and theta characteristics to show that they coincide.
We study the weight 11 part of the compactly supported cohomology of the moduli space of curves $M_{g,n}$, using graph complex techniques, with particular attention to the case $n = 0$. As applications, we prove new nonvanishing results for the cohomology of $M_g$, and exponential growth with $g$, in a wide range of degrees.
We study the $K$-ring of the wonderful variety of a hyperplane arrangement and give a combinatorial presentation that depends only on the underlying matroid. We use this combinatorial presentation to define the $K$-ring of an arbitrary loopless matroid. We construct an exceptional isomorphism, with integer coefficients, to the Chow ring of the matroid that satisfies a Hirzebruch--Riemann--Roch-type formula, generalizing a recent construction of Berget, Eur, Spink, and Tseng for the permutohedral variety (the wonderful variety of a Boolean arrangement). As an application, we give combinatorial formulas for Euler characteristics of arbitrary line bundles on wonderful varieties. We give analogous constructions and results for augmented wonderful varieties, and for Deligne--Mumford--Knudsen moduli spaces of stable rational curves with marked points.
We propose a definition of tropical linear series that isolates some of the essential combinatorial properties of tropicalizations of not-necessarily-complete linear series on algebraic curves. The definition combines the Baker-Norine notion of rank with the notion of tropical independence and has the property that the restriction of a tropical linear series of rank r to a connected subgraph is a tropical linear series of rank r. We show that tropical linear series of rank 1 are finitely generated as tropical modules and state a number of open problems related to algebraic, combinatorial, and topological properties of higher rank tropical linear series
We prove the local motivic monodromy conjecture for singularities that are nondegenerate with respect to a simplicial Newton polyhedron. It follows that all poles of the local topological zeta functions of such singularities correspond to eigenvalues of monodromy acting on the cohomology of the Milnor fiber of some nearby point, as do the poles of Igusa's local $p$-adic zeta functions for large primes $p$.
We study the local face modules of triangulations of simplices, i.e., the modules over face rings whose Hilbert functions are local $h$-vectors. In particular, we give resolutions of these modules by subcomplexes of Koszul complexes as well as functorial maps between modules induced by inclusions of faces. As applications, we prove a new monotonicity result for local $h$-vectors and new results on the structure of faces in triangulations with vanishing local $h$-vectors.
We prove that the rational cohomology group $H^{11}(\bar{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n})$ vanishes unless $g = 1$ and $n \geq 11$. We show furthermore that $H^k(\bar{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n})$ is pure Hodge-Tate for all even $k \leq 12$ and deduce that $\# \bar{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}(\mathbb{F}_q)$ is surprisingly well approximated by a polynomial in $q$. In addition, we use $H^{11}(\bar{\mathcal{M}}_{1,11})$ and its image under Gysin push-forward for tautological maps to produce many new examples of moduli spaces of stable curves with nonvanishing odd cohomology and non-tautological algebraic cycle classes in Chow cohomology.
Actions on hyperbolic metric spaces are an important tool for studying groups, and so it is natural, but difficult, to attempt to classify all such actions of a fixed group. In this paper, we build strong connections between hyperbolic geometry and commutative algebra in order to classify the cobounded hyperbolic actions of numerous metabelian groups up to a coarse equivalence. In particular, we turn this classification problem into the problems of classifying ideals in the completions of certain rings and calculating invariant subspaces of matrices. We use this framework to classify the cobounded hyperbolic actions of many abelian-by-cyclic groups associated to expanding integer matrices. Each such action is equivalent to an action on a tree or on a Heintze group (a classically studied class of negatively curved Lie groups). Our investigations incorporate number systems, factorization in formal power series rings, completions, and valuations.